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Learn from Me, O mighty-armed Arjuna, these five causes as declared in the Sankhya system for the accomplishment of all actions.

Mighty-armed one, learn from me these five causes for the accomplishment of all actions, as declared in the Sankhya teaching that brings action to its end.

Krishna now introduces a new analysis of action itself. He asks Arjuna to learn the five causes for the accomplishment of every action, as taught in Sankhya, the school of analytical knowledge, described here as the teaching in which action comes to its end. Readers have understood this either as a particular philosophical system or more generally as the path of discriminating knowledge. The analysis that follows aims to loosen the sense that the individual alone is the doer.